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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29754879">I'll Bend and I'll Break But That's Just the Way I'm Made</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/junghosucks/pseuds/junghosucks'>junghosucks</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby does not become Trevor, Boggie is the main ship, Carrie is never mentioned but she exists, F/M, Luke Patterson Has ADHD (Julie and The Phantoms), M/M, Mentioned Ray Molina, Protective Bobby | Trevor Wilson, Rare Disease Day 2021, Reggie Peters has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Reggie Peters has a chronic illness, Smart Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Soft Bobby | Trevor Wilson, Sunset Curve in modern era, and is Bobby's sister, he/they willie, she/they flynn, they're all college age</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:07:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,931</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29754879</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/junghosucks/pseuds/junghosucks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When a series of events (and a lot of convincing from one Luke Patterson) leads to Julie bonding with the members of Sunset Curve, she discovers what it means to be part of something bigger than herself. But the more time she spends with the band, the more she realises that something is going on with Reggie and she doesn't know what it is or how to help her new friend.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Bobby | Trevor Wilson/Reggie Peters, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>102</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I'll Bend and I'll Break But That's Just the Way I'm Made</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Howdy! Feb 28th is Rare Disease Day, a way to raise awareness and improve access to treatments for those with conditions/illnesses that fall into the rare disease category. One of the conditions that technically falls into this category (depending on where you look) Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - often shortened to EDS/eds. So, in order to hopefully raise a little bit of awareness for Rare Disease Day myself I present to you the headcanon I hold near and dear to my heart: eds Reggie. </p><p>(Please note this fic does contain some brief mentions of things like joint dislocations and the regular taking of medications.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The day that Julie meets Luke Patterson is the day her life changes forever, in the way that your very logical and direct path to the future veers off course because someone decided off roading was an option.</p><p>The college’s music department has some pretty decent funding, one of its many positive attributes. This includes music rooms that students can book time in, something Julie does as often as possible. The process is the same as always. Book your time online the night before, go to class, finish class, go to the music room and practice. Her favourite is the one that has a proper grand piano instead of just a keyboard. It’s smaller than others, ironic as it holds the biggest instrument, and is tucked away at the end of a seldom used hallway.</p><p>She’s not the only one who knows about it of course, there are other regulars aside from her, but by now they’ve all staked their claims on their own reoccurring time slots.</p><p>But for now the room is hers and she’s rewarded with a sliver of peace. The takes her seat at the piano which feels a bit like coming home and then she starts to play, starts to sing. The song is a few years old now, one her mom wrote for her but it’s a favourite. By the end it never fails to make her feel warm like the first sip of hot chocolate on a winter day.</p><p>She plays the final keys and sighs contentedly, *Wake Up* always makes her feel closer to her mom.</p><p>"Woah."</p><p>The voice coming out of nowhere startles her, causing her to press down of multiple keys at once. She whips around to look at the boy standing at the (thankfully) closed door of the music room, looking a mixture of sheepish and amazed.</p><p>"What are you doing in here?! Who are you?!" she yells, standing up and storming over to him. "You can't just waltz in here y'know. I booked this room out for a reason."</p><p>The boy, who irritatingly also happens to be very cute, holds his hands up in surrender, "Sorry, sorry! I-I'm Luke, and I knew I shouldn't have come in but you can't see the piano from the door and the walls are soundproofed so I didn't know you were in here!"</p><p>Julie cocks her hip and crosses her arms over her chest. "So you thought you could just come in here and steal someone else's slot?" It's honestly not that outlandish of an accusation, people seem to do it all the time.</p><p>"No, no! Look, I usually have the booking after yours, when I can get it anyway. You were in here yesterday too, right?"</p><p>"So?"</p><p>The boy, Luke, opens up the messenger bag slung across his body, "I checked to see when you had the room again, so I could return this to you." He pulls out two very familiar folded sheets of paper and holds them out to her. "I'm not sure if it's something you're still working on, but it seemed like something that might be important. I wanted to make sure you got it back."</p><p>She takes the pieces of paper from him and unfolds them, and they're exactly what she expected to see. *'Rose and Julie Molina - Edge of Great*' scribbled at the top.</p><p>"I- Thank you. I wasn't sure what had happened to it," she mumbles.</p><p>"It's really good. So are you by the way. I didn't mean to intrude but you have some seriously killer pipes." He gives her a cheeky grin.</p><p>"Uh, thanks. I guess," she responds, a little taken aback by the way Luke seems to have decided that he's allowed to just wander further into the room now.</p><p>"The song you were singing just now, did you write that too?"</p><p>Julie shakes her head. "My mom did."</p><p>"Oh, right," Luke bites his lip and looks down like he's deciding what to say next. "But you do write songs, don't you?"</p><p>"So what if I do?"</p><p>Luke looks like a cat that just got the cream, "Then we should definitely have a song writing session! I write most of the lyrics for my band. Sunset Curve, you might have heard of us."</p><p>"I have never heard of you, and you can't just come in here all big smiles and sleeveless shirts like *'here's your lyrics back'* and expect us to be friends!"</p><p>Luke pouts. "Aw, please? It'll be great, I promise!"</p><p>Julie rolls her eyes and groans, "No! Now thank you for returning my music sheets. I really do appreciate it. But I have other music to work on, for class, and I'd really like to be left alone to do that."</p><p>Luke gives her a determined look as he heads for the door, "I'll go, for now. But trust me, I'm not going to rest until you agree to a song writing session!" He swings the door open dramatically and marches out.</p><p>Just as promised, rest he does not. Luke seems to find Julie whenever he can and every time, asks her to hang out and write songs with him and his band. Every time she refuses.</p><p>"I'm telling you, he's never going to stop!" Julie complains to Flynn over lunch.</p><p>"I mean, he's not being creepy or weird is he?" she asks and steals one of Julie's fries.</p><p>"No, not at all. It's just kind of irritating I guess," she trails off and dunks her fries in her ketchup sulkily.</p><p>Flynn purses their lips together for a moment. "Well why don't you just take him up on his offer? I mean it can't hurt right?"</p><p>Julie looks at her like they've gone mad. Flynn takes a sip of their milkshake "Seriously, you might even find it helps you with your music."</p><p>"Fine, I guess so," she concedes.</p><p>"Just, text me the time and address okay? Just in case they actually are creeps," she adds.</p><p>So when Luke corners her that afternoon and Julie actually agrees, Luke almost breaks an ankle tripping over his own feet. He writes down his number of a piece of scrap paper and hands it to Julie. She takes one look at it and hands over her phone because there's no way she can read that. She wonders if his handwriting is always that bad or if he's just jittery from excitement.</p><p>⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅⊰⋅⋄★⋄⋅⊱⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅</p><p>The first time she meets the band is on a Wednesday afternoon, Luke had texted her the address and given her a time but that’s about it. She knocks of the door of what looks like a detached spare room, turned studio and it almost immediately swings open to reveal a tall, pale blonde boy in a pink hoodie. “Oh, you must be Julie.”</p><p>“That’s me!” She tries to smile but it feels more like a grimace.</p><p>The blond boy gives her a strange look but steps aside to let her in to what is definitely a makeshift studio, and apparently also into chaos.</p><p>Luke is stumbling around the room covering his head and giggling while another boy borates him and tries to beat him half to death with a decorative cushion. “You,” smack “Do,” smack “Not,” smack “Eat,” smack “Our,” smack “Snacks!” And by this point Luke is on the floor groaning like he’s been mortally wounded. The blond boy comes up behind her and clears his throat loudly, making both boys turn to look their direction.</p><p>“Julie!” Luke smiles brightly and sits up. “You actually came! I wasn’t sure you would-Oh this is Bobby,” he says and points to the boy still standing beside him holding the cushion, Bobby just gives her a head nod as if this is totally normal. “You already met Alex,” Luke continues as he points to the blonde boy, who now seems to be inspecting her...outfit?</p><p>“Hey,” He gives a little wave and points to her feet. “Cute shoes.”</p><p>Julie looks down at her sneakers. “Thanks, they’re new! They were on sale.” She smiles back at him and he nods with genuine understanding. Julie decides that Alex is probably her favourite.</p><p>“Uh also, that’s Reggie. Luke doesn’t usually forget about him like this I swear.” Alex tells her and points to a boy she hadn’t even noticed. He’s wearing a leather jacket with a black hoodie underneath and has the hood pulled up. He’s sitting on the cushy black couch facing away from her, clearly ignoring them. Well, every band has to have a moody standoffish one right?</p><p>She looks at the other two boys as Luke gets up off the floor, still grinning. Bobby though, he seems completely distracted, just looking at Reggie. Julie’s mind can’t help but feed her ideas. Perhaps there’s something going on there? Is that why Reggie is acting like this? Or is he always this way?</p><p>“So! Song writing?” Luke asks.</p><p>“Hm? Oh yeah, sure,” she says and pulls her bag off her shoulder, taking out her journal with most of her and her mom’s songs. It still hurts to think about too much, but things are getting better slowly. Maybe this song writing session will actually help.</p><p>Luke pulls her over to a worn wooden table and gestures excitedly to the chair as he takes a seat of his own. She shares an amused look with Alex as he takes a seat across from her. “No, he’s not always like an excited puppy. Yes he’s always this passionate about song writing.”</p><p>“Hey!” Luke objects, making Julie laugh.</p><p>Things flow pretty naturally after that and Julie finds she’s actually enjoying herself. Bobby joins them for most of the time, leaving to get them drinks or snacks. She likes him a lot too, he’s smart and funny. In fact she finds herself getting on with all three of them.</p><p>She completely forgets there’s a fourth member of the band until there’s some shuffling behind her about an hour into their writing session. The ever elusive Reggie stands up from the couch on slightly unsteady legs, which prompts Bobby to stand and cross the room, “Easy, bug.” Reggie hums and pats Bobby’s shoulder before stretching with a mildly alarming amount of popping joints.</p><p>He pulls his hood off his head and Julie actually gets to properly see his face which is, in fact, adorable. Reggie almost instantly notices her and smiles like the sun, “Julie, right?” he asks and hurries over to bend down and hug her, which she awkwardly accepts.</p><p>Alex snorts, “Sorry, he’s a hugger.”</p><p>Julie just laughs “Don’t worry, so am I,” she says, more to Reggie than anyone else.</p><p>“See!” He huffs at Alex before shooting her finger guns and walking over to where Bobby has returned to his seat. Julie suddenly feels like she needs to reconsider everything she had assumed about Reggie.</p><p>“What if you go high here instead?” Luke points to a lyric, because he is somehow still focused on the music. She nods in agreement which prompts him to continue speaking, completely unphased by Reggie leaning into Bobby.</p><p>Bobby rolls his eyes and pulls Reggie into his lap, “You good?” he asks the taller boy quietly.</p><p>“Mhm, time?” he questions and reaches to pull a small tin out from his back pocket.</p><p>Without even thinking Julie glances at her watch “Five fourteen,” she says and then wishes she hadn’t.</p><p>There’s a moment of silence where everyone has stopped talking and are all looking at her and it really feels like she interrupted an unspoken intimate moment.</p><p>But then Reggie is grinning at her again. “Cool, thanks Jules.” She’s not really sure where he gets the nickname from but she decides she likes it. Reggie pops the tin open to take out a small white tablet then grabs the glass of water Bobby had been drinking from and turns to look at him, “You should really get a watch too Bobbers.”</p><p>The other boy rolls his eyes “You want me to get a watch, so you can check the time?”</p><p>Reggie nods like it’s obvious.</p><p>“Otherwise I’ll have to replace you with Julie. She has a watch!” He points to her wrist.</p><p>Julie opens her mouth to ask why Reggie can’t just wear a watch himself but instead Luke jumps in first, “No, Julie’s mine!” He complains and wraps an arm around her shoulders.</p><p>“Uh.” Is the best she can do.</p><p>“Actually,” Alex leans forward. “Julie is a human who gets to choose who she belongs to,” he looks pointedly at Luke and then Reggie, “Or replaces.” He gets up and smacks Luke’s arm until he releases Julie and pouts like an upset toddler.</p><p>“Besides,” Alex rests a hand on Julie’s shoulder. “I’m clearly her favourite.”</p><p>Julie laughs. “Well you guys sure do know how to make a girl feel special,” she teases.</p><p>“So does that mean you plan to replace Willie with Julie then?” Bobby questions with a raised brow, Reggie oooing right after.</p><p>Alex gasps in mock offence, “How dare you! Willie would love Julie!”</p><p>And before the conversation can continue Julie decides to cut them off “As fun as this whole debate is, I should probably get going.”  While she’s grateful that college isn’t far so she’s been able to stay living at home it does mean she’s still expected to be back for dinner.</p><p>“Do you need a ride or anything?” Alex asks over both Luke and Reggie’s displeased noises.</p><p>“Actually my house is only like two streets away so I’m fine just walking home, but thanks anyway.”</p><p>She slides her journal back into her bag and goes to pick it up but Luke intercepts. “Great! I’ll walk you home,”</p><p>Bobby snorts. “How romantic.”</p><p>Julie pretends the idea doesn’t make something warm fizzle gently in her chest. Luke just sticks his tongue out at the others.</p><p>“C’mon, let’s leave these losers behind,” he grumbles as he slides her bag onto his shoulders and ushers her out the door to a chorus of goodbyes behind them.</p><p>They walk in silence for less than twenty seconds before Luke has to break it, “So...” He looks far too pleased with himself.</p><p>“So, that was a lot more eventful than I had expected,” she elaborates “How long have you guys been a band anyway?”</p><p>Clearly that’s exactly what she needed to say to send Luke going. “Oh man, for ages! Since we were like twelve really, but I think we became properly invested when we were around fifteen.” He chuckles. “Alex has played drums since forever. I started learning guitar when I was eight, Reggie started learning bass pretty soon after that. I only know Bobby through Reg and he was already an ace guitarist when we started hanging out first year of high school.” Julie nods along, realising she’s never even asked what each of them played.</p><p>“You play guitar and sing, I know that much. But I have to ask, do we even go to the same collage?”</p><p>Luke gives her the cheekiest smile and stuffs his hands in his pockets. “Nah, Alex and Reggie do though. I usually get them to book the music room for me. Less distractions for writing and all.”</p><p>“You know that violates a whole bunch of policies right?” She raises a brow at him.</p><p>Luke bumps their shoulders together, “Why, you gonna rat me out?”</p><p>She elbows his side gently. “Honestly, I just don’t want to drag Alex and Reggie into trouble.”</p><p>He winces at the mention of their names more than at the elbow to his ribs. “Yeah, that’s smart. Alex is pretty high strung. He’s got a lot of anxiety, s’why he started drumming as a kid. Oh and Reggie has eds by the way,” he says, spelling out the individual letters “So he might not always be around or whatever. And Bobby might seem kind of grumpy sometimes but he’s just tired. He works two jobs, plus looking after all of us.”</p><p>Julie nods, not really knowing what to say. Eventually she decides to ask another question instead “Alex and Reggie, what are they studying?”</p><p>Luke hums “Alex is studying to become a music teacher,” He scrunches up his face. “Reggie is uh, I think he’s doing sound and robotics engineering or something? I don’t really understand.”</p><p>“What about you and Bobby?” Julie asks and hope she’s not prying too much.</p><p>“I mean, we all live together in this tiny apartment nearby, he and I both have jobs. Y’know that record music store kind of near the mall but not actually in it?”</p><p>Julie smiles as they turn onto her street “Yes! I used to go there with my mom, actually.”</p><p>“That’s my home away from home,” Luke grins, but then it falters. “Sort of, I mean I probably wouldn’t be there as much if they didn’t pay me.”</p><p>Julie laughs again as they walk up to her door. “Well this is me.”</p><p>Luke nods and hands her bag back to her. “So would you want to maybe do this again? Same time next week?”</p><p>He looks so hopeful and Julie knows the answer is yes but she pretends to think it over just to torment him. “Sure, I guess I can spare you boys some of my precious time.”</p><p>Luke actually fist pumps, “Hell Yeah! Awesome! Cool, I’ll see you next week!” And he gives her one of those stunning smiles again. “Bye Julie.”</p><p>“Bye Luke,” she responds, only a moment too late.</p><p>When she finally gets inside her dad gives her an all too knowing look. “Have a good song writing session mija?”</p><p>She tries her best to hide how big her smile is. “Yeah, I’ll tell you about it over dinner.”</p><p>It’s only later that night when she’s lying in bed that she really gets to process everything that happened in the afternoon. Like who Willie is, or what Reggie and Bobby are (maybes she’s a bit nosy, but you can’t blame her for being curious). But mostly she has a lot of questions about Reggie. When she first arrived she’d assumed he was the moody one, or something, which could not have been more wrong. But she still feels like there’s something off with him, something she doesn’t know. Why was he keeping to himself for the first hour and what was the medication he took? She wonders if a similar thing will happen next week.</p><p>⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅⊰⋅⋄★⋄⋅⊱⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅</p><p>The next six days pass by quickly in the way that you finally get a grip on one as you’re waking up for the next. One of her questions does get answered though. Two days after their song writing session she and Flynn bump into Alex, his hand tightly locked with an unfairly attractive individual. An individual she knows rather well actually, thanks to her best friend. Because as it happens, Alex’s boyfriend Willie and Flynn’s photography partner turned good friend Willie are one and the same. It really is a small world. She wonders how long it would have been until she met one of the boys had she and Luke not crossed paths like they did, maybe it was just a matter of time until she got roped into something by one of them.</p><p>She ponders as much as her feet take her up to the door of the studio once again.</p><p>“Julie!” Reggie shouts in excitement, swinging the door open before she could even knock. This is already very different from last week.</p><p>“Hey Reggie!” She tries to match his excitement as he lets her in. She looks around but sees no sign of Luke or Alex, just Bobby on the couch fiddling with his guitar.</p><p>“Hey Julie,” he says with a slight glance up at her before going back to his guitar. “Luke and ‘Lex had to run back to the apartment real quick. Luke apparently managed to forget his notebook again.”</p><p>“Third time this week,” Reggie adds in as he flops down next to Bobby.</p><p>“They should be back in ten or so.” Bobby finishes and gestures for Julie to sit down on the unoccupied couch.</p><p>“Oh, no problem.” She sits down awkwardly. She feels somewhat out of place with just Reggie and Bobby alone. Like she’s intruding.</p><p>Reggie slumps down and leans himself heavily against Bobby’s side, “He’s been at this since we got here almost an hour ago,” he tells Julie with a dramatic sigh. “A terrible boyfriend! Not giving me any attention!”</p><p>Bobby scoffs, “It has not been almost an hour, you just have the same amount of patience as a spoon.”</p><p>Julie has to cover her mouth with her hand to stop herself from actually laughing out loud. Reggie pouts at her. "You see what I have to deal with?"</p><p>"Oh it seems hellish." She nods seriously as has to purse her lips in order not to smile.</p><p>"I'm the absolute worst," Bobby adds without even looking up.</p><p>The bassist hums in agreement. "It is my burden to bare."</p><p>Julie sees the way Bobby's mouth quirks up ever so slightly. "Too bad you're stuck with me huh?"</p><p>And Reggie just kind of melts until only authentic emotion remains and shines clear as day on his face "Yeah," he breathes and looks at Bobby like he hung the stars. "Too bad."</p><p>Julie lets herself enjoy the outright display of affection, lets the fondness she already feels for these two boys (and the two others) settle warm in her chest.</p><p>Of course the moment is broken by Luke stumbling into the room, all excited movements and rambling, while Alex shuffles in behind him with equal parts exasperation and amusement.</p><p>"Hey, Julie! Listen, I found some of my old songs and I was thinking we should totally try them out! They'd sound amazing with your vocals."</p><p>Alex nods. “Luke’s the only one that’s heard you sing and he said you’d knock our socks off. Those are the actual words he used.”</p><p>Really Julie kind of loves that phrasing, “Fine, I guess we could.” She responds like it’s some kind of hardship.</p><p>From there it’s a lot of chaos as the boys all sort themselves out excitedly and Julie goes over the lyrics Luke handed her.</p><p>“Oi, No. You’re not getting away with it today Reg.” Bobby grumbles, walking over to pick something up from the wooden table and dropping it in Reggie’s lap where he’s still sitting on the couch, now with his bass.</p><p>“Noooo,” Reggie whines and kicks his feet like a child. “It makes me play weird!”</p><p>“It does not, you just think it does. If you don’t wear it I’m not playing. Neither is Bobby.” Alex tells him, sternly pointing a drumstick in his direction.</p><p>“You guys suck.” Reggie pouts but starts to fiddle with whatever the thing is until it’s secured around his wrist. A wrist brace.</p><p>Once again Julie feels like she’s missing something, but she also doesn’t feel like she has a right to find out just yet regardless of how curious she might be.</p><p>As she watches him mess with his wrist guard she notices these simple silver rings on some of his fingers, something she doesn’t remember seeing last week. Honestly they look pretty cool, maybe she’ll have to ask where he got them.</p><p>“You guys ready?” Luke asks, grinning wide and bouncing on his feet.</p><p>Julie nods as she stands up. “As long as you don’t hold it against me if I miss some of the lyrics.”</p><p>And then they start playing the opening of *Bright*.</p><p>It’s a strange kind of special feeling, singing with Sunset Curve. For the first time so far she feels like this is where she’s supposed to be, like she’s part of something rather than intruding on it. It feels really good, actually.</p><p>She holds the final note as the song finishes and almost as soon as they do Luke is shifting his guitar out of the way and wrapping Julie in a tight hug.</p><p>“That was amazing!” he praises her breathlessly.</p><p>“Wow,” Alex agrees.</p><p>“Well shit,” Bobby laughs. “How the hell are we supposed to follow that up?”</p><p>“You,” Reggie points at Julie. “Have the voice of an angel.”</p><p>Julie laughs, still feeing giddy. “Thanks guys. Luke these lyrics are really great. Why haven’t you guys used this song before?”</p><p>“It always felt like something was missing.” Alex answers.</p><p>“Yeah, and I think we might have just found it.” Luke states, looking at her in a way she can’t quite decipher. “Okay! Band meeting!” he tells the other boys. They all set their instruments down and shuffle over to the other side of the room to form a small circle.</p><p>She can’t hear everything they say, only a few snippets. They say her name and “The band” multiple times. She hears the words “Voice of an angel.” From Reggie again. Finally Luke says something that ends with “-gonna be perfect!” Before the break apart and turn to look at her.</p><p>“Julie,” Luke announces. “We have decided, we want you to join our band!”</p><p>“Oh.” For some reason this really surprises her, she doesn’t know what she was expecting but it wasn’t this.</p><p>“O-oh, she said oh,” he tells Reggie who looks equally as disappointed as Luke.</p><p>“What about Sunset Curve?”</p><p>“Well we were thinking that maybe, we’d still have us,” Alex gestures to the four of them. “Still have Sunset Curve. But then, we could have a second band, with you? Or something.” He shrugs and stuffs his hands into his pockets.</p><p>“Okay...” Julie nods slowly “And what would we be called?”</p><p>“Well, we hadn’t really gotten that far. Kind of figured we should wait until you said yes first.” Bobby comments with folded arms and a raised eyebrow.</p><p>“So...Are you saying yes?” Luke questions timidly.</p><p>Julie worries her lip for a moment “It might be kind of difficult to fit in with college and everything else. But if you guys really mean it then I’m willing to give it a shot.” As soon as the words are out of her mouth she has four loud, excited boys whooping and cheering as they crowd around her (even Bobby seems to be celebrating). She doesn’t know them well yet, hasn’t even known them all that long. But it still somehow feels like something akin to family.</p><p>They go through Bright again, Julie suggesting the addition of her keyboard. By the time they move on to another song Bright has a whole new feel to it.</p><p>Alex gives her a ride home on his way to see Willie and she texts Flynn about the day’s events before she’s even gotten to her front door. Flynn, of course, texts back with too many emoji’s and appoints themselves as the band’s manager and marketing team.</p><p>Her dad is out with Carlos for the evening which gives Julie some peace to think about everything that’s happened. Each time she does she feels the way hope has rooted itself in her chest and the excitement that bubbles in the pit of her stomach. But eventually her mind always drifts back to Reggie. She goes over the way that he had to take breaks during practice to stretch and shake out his limbs, how by the end he looked ready to keel over regardless of the lively energy in the room. Or how at one point Bobby brought over a chair and made Reggie play while sitting down. How relieved he looked when the older boy did so.</p><p>Clearly there is a story there, there *is* something going on. Was he sick? Or maybe he was overworked considering he was double majoring in two already tricky areas, plus the band (now bands, she reminds herself) and whatever the eds was. But what was the medication she’d seen him take both last week and this week? Why does he need a wrist guard?</p><p>Maybe it’s not her place but at this point her curiosity is overshadowed by worry. She wants to know if there’s anything she can do that might help, if Reggie ever needs it. She resolves to ask about it next time she has the chance.</p><p>Speak of the devils—because really that goes for all four of them—her phone is overrun with notification after notification. She checks her messages and they're all from a text thread with Luke, Alex and two unknown numbers she can already guess the owners of. She sends them a greeting which they all return. One of the numbers sends a ‘*This is Bobby btw.*’ And of course the next message is *‘REGGIE!’* In all caps with multiple emojis. Just as she finishes adding their contact details Luke sends her a private message asking about band practice the next day. She responds with a thumbs up emoji and sets her phone down in favour of reheating some leftover spaghetti.</p><p>⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅⊰⋅⋄★⋄⋅⊱⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅</p><p>Band practice comes soon enough, after a busy morning of classes she only just barely gets there on time and finds the door to the studio propped open.</p><p>“Knock knock,” she calls and peeks in, seeing Alex and Luke chatting on one of the couches.</p><p>“Hiya Jules!” Luke exclaimed and waves her over.</p><p>Just as she sits down (or rather, is pulled down by Luke to sit between them) Bobby strides in while running a hand through his hair. Surprisingly, he’s not followed by Reggie.</p><p>“Hey Julie,” he greets once he notices her presence.</p><p>“Hi,” She smiles back at him softly. “No Reggie today?”</p><p>Alex shakes his head “It’s an eds day today right?” He looks at Bobby who nods and really looks like this is not where he wants to be.</p><p>Julie wonders if she should ask about the bassist but decides now is not the time.</p><p>“Don't worry man,” Luke stands and claps Bobby on the shoulder. “We’ll cut things short today so you can get back to your boy,” he teases.</p><p>Bobby huffs and picks up his guitar which is enough of an indication that they should do the same.</p><p>They spend a while going through and practicing songs, testing a few things out. It feels strange to Julie, to not have Reggie there or to hear his bass in the songs that she knows well enough to recognise that it’s missing. The others seem to handle it better so she assumes this must be an occasional occurrence. Then they work on some more song writing but it's not long before Bobby is getting antsy enough that they have to call it for the day. The rhythm guitarist is calling his goodbyes as he's already halfway out the door. Julie blinks a few times and tries to process how quickly whatever that was, happened.</p><p>Alex turns to her and shrugs. "Sorry. Bobby is pretty protective of Reggie. He doesn't like being separated from him when either of them are having a bad day."</p><p>"It's sweet," Julie comments. "They're really good together."</p><p>Luke scoffs but he’s still smiling. "Yeah, they're real soulmates. They sure know how to make a guy feel single as hell."</p><p>She glances at Luke and then to Alex who gives her a knowing grin. "Cheer up buddy, I'm sure you'll find your perfect match before you know it."</p><p>Luke's gaze flicks to Julie for the briefest of moments, enough to make her think she could have imagined it. He clears his throat. "Yeah, I guess."</p><p>Alex picks up his keys, phone and wallet from the table while looking far too smug. "You want a ride home Julie?"</p><p>"Oh. sure. That'd be great actually," she agrees as she and Luke gather their things.</p><p>Luke, with his practically one track mind, steers the conversation back to music again and it flows easily from there. It feels like only moments before Alex is pulling up to her house.</p><p>"Oh hey, we're having a movie night on Saturday if you wanted to come?" Luke offers, Alex nodding along.</p><p>Julie nods. "That sounds awesome. I'll see if I can worm my way out of whatever my family has planned,"</p><p>"Great!" Luke responds and reaches behind himself from the passenger seat to high-five her.</p><p>"We can text you the details." Alex adds as she exist the car.</p><p>"Sounds like a plan. See you two later, say hi to Reg for me!" She waves to them and turns to head inside.</p><p>It's a few hours later when she gets a text in the group thread (which has apparently been renamed *'*The Start of Something New' by one of them). It's from Alex and reads *'movie night starts at 7pm!*' followed by a google maps screenshot of their apartment address and the message *'In case your dad wants to know where his kid is, or something.'* from Bobby. She shoots back a quick thank you and copies the picture to send to her dad.</p><p>Luke responds with a simple *':D'* and then one comes through from Reggie, once again with too many emojis and the instructions *'wear your pyjamas! pj party pj party pj PARTY!!!*' and it's so very Reggie that after not seeing him today it makes her miss him a little less.</p><p>Julie ends up getting a little more information about the movie night throughout Friday and some of Saturday itself. They have snacks and they'll be getting pizza, Willie will be there too, and they're watching the original Ghostbusters.</p><p>By the time Saturday evening rolls around she's actually pretty excited. She'd even raided their kitchen to bring along a few extra treats. Plus her look is a perfect mix of cute and comfortable with floral print sleep pants, a cream coloured crop top, an orange sweater with a smiley face printed on it over the top, and her iconic animal paw slippers.</p><p>Which is the first thing commented on as soon as the apartment door opens.</p><p>"Okay, where did you get those because I need at least six pairs," Willie announces in lieu of a greeting as he lets her in.</p><p>Julie laughs. "I've had them for years but we can see if we can find some online for you,"</p><p>Willie grins widely, "Sweet! This is why you're the best one." they tell her with absolutely no elaboration as he leads her further into the apartment. It's a decent size, probably a bit small for four people but it's cosy. The front door leads directly into an open plan area with the kitchen to one side and a basic dining table nearby. But the main space taken up by the lounge area with a television up against the wall, two large couches, a chair and a three legged coffee table held up by a stack of books. None of the furniture seems to match.</p><p>"Julie!" Reggie yells and waves from the smaller and older looking couch.</p><p>"Julie's here?" Luke calls from a separate room and seems to appear out of nowhere in an old ratty tank top and ripped jeans. "Hey, you look nice." He tells her as Bobby and Alex appear as well.</p><p>"Hey Julie," Bobby greets her and Alex shoots her a 'hi' as he bustles past with his laptop.</p><p>Willie peeks over her shoulder into the bag of food she brought, "Ooh, snacks!" they chirp and take the bag from her hands to rummage through on the kitchen counter.</p><p>“We’re running a bit behind, you can just go chill with Reg while everyone gets their shit together.” Bobby informs as he takes her shoulders and steers her over to the couch beside Reggie.</p><p>“Willie, Alex. You guys good to go pick up the pizza?” the rhythm guitarist continues.</p><p>“Yeah, just give me a sec. I think I’ve got it figured out. Right Reg?” Alex asks, turning to the boy still on the couch.</p><p>Reggie peers at the way Alex has his laptop connected to the television “Looks good from here man, I mean it is just one cord.”</p><p>“Luke, *you* need to go shower. You smell like sweaty unwashed bedsheets,” Luke makes a sound akin to an offended goose and storms off to the bathroom. “*I* will work on snacks. And *you two*,” he points to Julie and Reggie. “Stay put.”</p><p>“Aye Aye captain!” Reggie agrees with a fake salute.</p><p>“Alright babe, let’s go.” Alex gets up and takes Willie’s hand, “See you guys in a few!” He calls over his shoulder.</p><p>Julie finally settled down next to Reggie who just throws his blanket over her lap as well.</p><p>"Y'know I missed you at practice yesterday," she tells him and bumps their shoulders together.</p><p>Reggie lets out a petulant whine “I’m still so mad I had to miss it! But after I dislocated my shoulder everything else started to flare and there was basically no point in me coming, especially because I can’t even hold my bass!” He pouts at her.</p><p>Julie processes what he said and she can physically feel the way her jaw drops and her eyes bug out of her head. Reggie dissolved into a fit of giggles just looking at her.</p><p>“Oh my god, your face right now!”</p><p>She almost asks if he’s joking but he leans forward as he laughs and she catches a glimpse of an icepack lodged between the couch and his shoulder.</p><p>“Reggie, that’s pretty serious! Are you okay? Did you go to hospital?” She frets over him because at this point she can’t help it.</p><p>Bobby laughs from the kitchen as he dumps an assortment of candy into a bowl. “Calm down Jules, it’s all just standard procedure,”</p><p>She looks between the two of them and finally, *finally*, announces “I’m pretty sure I’m missing something here.”</p><p>Reggie's giggles subside and he links his good arm with hers "Bobby told Luke to tell you about me so I didn't have to, I thought he did."</p><p>"With that boy's ADHD brain? I'm not surprised he forgot," Bobby quips as he bites the head off a gummy snake and leans against the kitchen counter.</p><p>"Wait, tell me what about you?" Julie interjects.</p><p>Reggie takes a deep breath and steels himself "Julie...I'm bisexual."</p><p>Julie, quite frankly, thinks her brain might be short circuiting.</p><p>"Oh for fuck sake," Bobby growls and marches over to (very carefully) perch on the arm of the couch beside Reggie. "Can you not see how much you are confusing her right now, dumbass? If you break Julie we can’t just get a replacement."</p><p>"Mean!" Reggie objects. He turns to look at Julie again "I'm kidding," he frowns for a moment "Actually no, I'm not. I mean, I am bisexual. That just has nothing to do with...this." He half-heartedly gestures to himself using the arm that's tangled with Julie's.</p><p>"So I have this condition called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, or eds as we usually call it, because Luke never pronounces it properly."</p><p>"Oh my god," Julie interrupts with her own fit of giggle and covers her face with her spare hand. "He did tell me you had eds, but he didn't elaborate on what it was so I thought it was some sort of club or something!"</p><p>Bobby actually lets out a hearty chuckle at this, and it's a really nice sound. "Figures,"</p><p>"Pssh I wish it was just a club," Reggie sighs. "It's a connective tissue disorder caused by something going wrong with your collagen. But it basically means that people who have it are usually really bendy and hypermobile in the worst kind of way. All of my muscles, tendons and other stuff doesn't work properly, they’re too elastic. So they don’t hold anything in place like they should."</p><p>Julie nods along, "So that's why your shoulder dislocated?"</p><p>"Sure is! The main problem with eds is that with nothing holding them in place, your joints aren't stable and can just decide to peace out of the socket."</p><p>"There's also different types of Ehlers-Danlos," Bobby explains and starts to run his fingers through the bassist's hair. "Reg has the most common one from what we understand, which is hypermobile eds."</p><p>"Does it hurt a lot?" Julie inquires softly.</p><p>Reggie closes his eyes and leans his head back against the couch. "I mean, I try not to let myself think about it too much, but yeah it does. There's usually a lot of other things that come along with this too. Like arthritis, chronic fatigue, permanent damage and sometimes joint deformities. A lot of those symptoms will just get worse over time."</p><p>Julie kind of wants to cry, because this sounds like so much for a single person to deal with. She hates to imagine Reggie in so much pain.</p><p>Reggie opens his eyes and looks at her. He shifts their arms so he can hold her hand in his, "Hey, don't look so sad!" He smiles at her. "I know it sounds scary, but it's life. Plus I don't really know any different at this point."</p><p>She tries to smile back. "Thank you for explaining this to me, and just let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help okay?"</p><p>"Thank you Julie, I will," he promises with a gentle squeeze of his hand.</p><p>"Who is ready to party?!" Luke roars as he comes bounding back into the room, completely oblivious to the moment he just ruined.</p><p>"Me!" Willie hollers from the other side of the front door, Alex unlocking and opening it a moment later.</p><p>"Food!" Alex calls, as if they can't already see and smell the boxes of delicious pizza.</p><p>Reggie gasps. "I need to get Stripes!"</p><p>"I'll go grab him," Bobby kisses Reggie's head and leaves the room only to return a moment later with a stuffed zebra toy.</p><p>"My baby," Reggie beams and untangles himself from Julie to hug the toy. "Julie, this is Stripes. My son." He hands her the plush toy and she holds it in her lap. It looks well loved, with one eye missing and at least two places where the stitches have come undone then have been sewn back together by hand.</p><p>"He's the best boy." Willie states as he sits down on the other couch, placing two plates loaded with various pieces of pizza onto the coffee table. "You’ve got to explain the story though Reg," they add through a mouthful of food.</p><p>"Right! So with eds the zebra is kind of like a mascot? Doctors used to always be taught that when they hear hoofprints to think of a horse. Meaning the simplest explanation is the go-to answer. They forget that anything or anyone who isn't so simple exists, which makes getting a diagnosis or treatment really tough for a lot of people. Ehlers-Danlos is pretty uncommon but it still exists. Sometimes when you hear hoofprints it's not a horse, it's a zebra." Reggie looks at the toy fondly. "After I got diagnosed when I was twelve, Bobby did a whole bunch of research because I was too scared and found out about the whole zebra thing. Then he got me this little guy as a gift."</p><p>"Aww." Julie coos.</p><p>"Alright, no more emotional stuff or I'm going to start crying," Luke announces and squishes himself onto the couch next to Julie. The other boys all make themselves comfortable so they can finally start the movie night.</p><p>As it turns out the movie night mostly consists of Luke and Willie watching the movie, while everyone else engages in quiet conversations around them. Which is fine, because it gives Julie a chance to do a bit more research on her phone about Ehlers Danlos, and Reggie answers any questions she has about it too.</p><p>She learns that Reggie, along with a lot of other people, is on a pretty strong anti-inflammatory medication, and that he's deficient in a lot of things as well. His pain tolerance is higher than most people because he's used to doing things like dislocating joints and then relocating them all by himself but he still has to take strong pain killers regularly. He should wear his wrist guard whenever he plays because it stops his wrist from going out but it's bulky and stiff and he feels like he can't play the cords easily. This gives her an idea she files away for later.</p><p>"What's a subluxation?" she whispers in his ear.</p><p>"Oh, it's like a half dislocation. Partly out of the socket but not fully, here," He takes Julie's hand and places it on his good shoulder then lifts his arm up and out to the side so his elbow is about in line with his ear.</p><p>"Feel that?" he asks and yes, Julie can in fact feel the way his shoulder seems to sink down and create a weird squishy cavity.</p><p>"Oh I hate that," she tells him and pulls her hand away, making Reggie snicker.</p><p>"That's a subluxation. That sunken in part is where it’s a bit out of the socket, and for me it usually doesn't really hurt. Proper dislocations though, dude, ouch."</p><p>Julie nods and continues her research, until she doesn't anymore. Because about half way through the second movie, Luke, without even looking at her, slides his hand into hers. From there she decides her attention should be focused on making sure her face is not absolutely bright red.</p><p>Eventually the evening comes to a close. It's a bit before midnight when her dad picks her up and she already knows what she wants to ask him.</p><p>⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅⊰⋅⋄★⋄⋅⊱⋅ ------------------------------ ⋅</p><p>Julie wanders up to the studio door that Monday afternoon excitedly and hopes her gift is well received.</p><p>"Hi guys," she calls out as she lets herself in, and gets four separate replies.</p><p>"Julie! I have to tell you something!" Reggie yells.</p><p>Julie puts her hand out to cut him off. "Hang on, me first." She sits beside him on the couch and takes out a box from her bag, "This is for you. A few years before a lost my mom she, Carlos and I were dancing around the living room when she slipped and fell. She tried to catch herself with her hand and ended up with a sprain. So she had to wear this." She tells him as she hands it over, the other boys watching the scene play out silently.</p><p>Reggie stares at the box for a moment, looking at the wrist guard on the front of the packaging. It's a slim and flexible make. One her mom had gotten so she could still play the piano.</p><p>"Julie..." he murmurs.</p><p>She smiles softly at him. "It was always a bit big for my mom, so hopefully it'll fit you."</p><p>He gently takes it out of the box with a reverence no one should ever have for a medical support accessory. He slides it on and wraps the Velcro strap around his wrist, then tests his movement.</p><p>"This feels so much better, Julie, thank you!" He launches himself at her as the other boys all come closer to take a look.</p><p>"I'm glad! It's yours to keep" she affirms.</p><p>"Are you sure?" he questions and she nods.</p><p>"Dude, dude, tell her the thing," Luke cajoles.</p><p>"Oh! So after the movie night I had this idea, because I was thinking about what it'd be like to be a ghost. Would you want to be a ghost? So I was imagining us all as ghosts and then I was thinking about how we would be a band if we were all ghosts! Like, how would we play our instruments-"</p><p>"Reggie." Alex cuts him off.</p><p>"Right, okay. So, I thought of a name for the band. Drumroll please!" They all start drumming on the nearest surface.</p><p>"Julie and the Phantoms!"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>HELLO HELLO!! If you made it to the end I truly cannot thank you enough. This fic is probably the most important one I will ever write, in general and to me personally. As someone with Ehlers-Danlos I often feel like something of a ghost, always there but never seen or our existence is never acknowledged. So I anted to raise some awareness, both for EDS and for Rare Disease day. Please, please, PLEASE go look into both just a little bit more if you get a chance. And if you are feeling generous and are able, the Rare Disease Day website does have a donation button (no pressure!).</p><p>Every person that has EDS or anything similar has their own incredibly unique experience and set of symptoms. No to people present identically or follow the same pattern. Reggie's experience with the condition and how it presents is very much based off my own so please keep that in mind!</p><p>A absolutely HUGE thank you to the wonderful, incredible, angelic foundfamilyvevo (@sunsetcurvecuddles on tumblr!) who proofread this for me and has been something of a collaborator and sounding board throughout the entire process. You are an absolute gem, I love you, thank you for being you.</p><p>Comments and kudos genuinely make my day. Feel free to come scream about all things jatp (cough cough boggie) with me on tumblr @sweetheartreggie. </p><p>P.S. I'm going to be leaving a comment with some extra info/background about the fic if anyone is interested!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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